Many related art technologies are currently utilized for purifying water. One of the greatest challenges facing humankind is the ability to treat, purify, and render water usable and/or potable in many distinct and different regions of the globe. Increasingly, these challenges are addressed by methods of treating water with biological materials, such as plant materials, that may involve natural and organic processes to accomplish this objective. These methods often require specialized tools, such as “laminae,” laminate, or laminated mats, to insure that the biological materials, such as plant materials, therein grow as well as thrive. Additionally, the laminae mat insures that the roots and other “active” parts of a plant or other biological material, being used in organic processes, are applied to the water source in a manner such that the filtration occurs with maximum efficiency. Related art laminae mats or other floating “tools” that are not homogeneous, e.g., having differing characteristics, result in less optimal growth and inefficient filtration. These challenges in the related art are exacerbated by the absence of adequate tools for applying such biological approaches to water filtration.
For example, many of the laminae mats available in the market today involve three elements: the supports, the cup positioners, and the receiving cups. These three elements often have different measurements and characteristics and are, therefore, separately fabricated, thereby requiring additional assembly during manufacturing, and thereby adding both cost and complexity to the process. Also, related art technologies require various connections to be made between a plethora of elements, thereby compromising structural integrity and adding undue complexity. Furthermore, many of these related art assemblies involve the use of undue amounts of material in their manufacture, thereby rendering these related art assemblies overly heavy, overly voluminous, and overly expensive, especially in relation to large-scale operation markets where these related art assemblies are cost-prohibitive. Finally, many of the related art assemblies that are currently available have noncompliant dimensions in relation to standard shipping sizes, e.g., standard shipping sizes that are outlined by the European Union for pallets, thereby rendering packaging and shipping an inefficient and expensive operation.
While these background examples may relate to water purification technologies in general, they fail to disclose a simple, modular, low density structure, having evenly distributed substructures for which macrophyte plants are disposable in order to permit adequate growth, that can be sequentially fabricated without leaving any gaps or uncovered areas. As such, a long-felt need has been experienced in the related art for a large-scale “organic” laminae mat, adaptable for floating on a surface of water to be treated and/or purified, wherein the large-scale “organic” laminae mat is an integrated structure, having sufficient structural integrity, is compliant with standard packaging and shipping guidelines, is both manufacturable and distributable at a low cost.